Today, we're joined by Rob Furman. Dr. Rob is a progressive activist who advocates through speaking engagements, contributing for the educationalist blog of the Huffington Post, as well as writing for the Ed Tech Review. Furthermore, he is an ISTE best-selling author with his book, The Future Ready Challenge: Improve Student Outcomes in 18 Weeks. Dr. Rob is an elementary school principal at South Park Elementary Center in Pennsylvania.

The future of education is impossible to predict, and sadly most schools have reinforced more standards based on the 19th century rather than embrace new practice. What makes students ready for the future? Soft skills. Responsibility, self-direction, creativity, leadership, collaboration - all of these will be present no matter what situation they're presented with. It's not necessarily even coding that will be preparatory - most coding jobs will be replaced by advanced AI. That's not to say we shouldn't offer coding classes - however - to state this as a solution to the "future ready problem" is short-sighted.

A huge element of embracing progressive education and understand the need for change is knowing one's history. Traditional education has taken quite a route towards here, and shockingly very little has changed. If you have a moment, check out our simple "children's book" on the history of progressive ed.